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Saturday, April 09, 2011

My Toy Is Better Than Your Toy!

And since I have some time, I decided to write the final thoughts of my few-months observations. I fear I may turn into a sociologist one day. Buwahahaha!! What a lame joke, lady...

We have the urge to be seen as individuals with highly developped characters that distinguish ourselves against the rest, the mob. But somehow people tend to forget that the more they try to stand out, the less they will be visible. Why? The reason is simple - everyone wants it. This is why an individual who thinks he/she's unique and one of the kind, is nothing more than just a pixel in a mob of "outstanding" people. Examples? People, especially young ones, manifest their uniqueness in the easiest way possible - by belonging to some group. Sounds like a contradiction? Not at all. They start to listen to some music, and follow the trends - clothes, make-up, behavior. On the background of few random people they may be visible, but there are 2 hidden traps.

First - they are not that unique globally. It's not like they listen to some artist alone on the whole planet. They think like that, but it's the brain of a young person that creates self-centered image of the reality. The artist they listen to, has thousands of followers. And hundreds of them want to show to all they are listening to this-and-this group or solo. So, their singularity is a skin-deep singualarity. The second trap? It's not like they are alone in their desire to stand against the group. A person sitting close to you may think the same thing. Actually, almost everyone does. This way everyone consecrates time, money and effort to look unique and be perceived like that. In effect, we got a colorful crowd of hundreds of outstanding characters. But here's the thing - combined, they become just a colorful mob. That is - the thing they want to escape from so badly.

This goes to the main point of my rambling. To be seen as a jewel in the crown, a totally sui generis, people like to include in their daily conversations sentences like: "but it's probably only me who thinks like that", "I guess no one can share my taste", "I know I'm probably alone on this one", etc.

How do you know? You asked the remaining 6 billions of people on this planet?

Of course, a matter of taste is a very unique (Commercial Break: This post is sponsored by the letter U!) thing, but it doesn't mean one is totally alone with liking something or not.

I encountered lots of similar expressions, and variations of them appear according to the topic. Some may say: "I like this singer, but probably no one heard about him/her". And this kind of ignorance is like a water for my Mill of Anger. My sister described the similar situation once. We talked few times about Japanese, Chinese and other languages, not that she's that interested, but the calamity of linguist - eonni fell upon her, keke. And once, after her classes she told me what one of her Professor said during his lecture. I can't remember the whole situation, but he mentioned something about Chinese, concluding: "But I bet no one who is present here knows what I'm talking about". This way, he insulted my sister.

This is coming from some complexes. People who feel inferior to someone, anyone, are more likely to use this kind of "feel-good" expressions. This makes them feel holier-than-thou. This makes them feel better. Fine. I can put up with that, I don't care. I don't usually care about such petty stuff. But this leads to some other traps.

Person engulfed with one's own feeling of uniqueness, feels few things. First- no one, absolutely no one on this vast, dumb, mind-blocked planet understands the music/movie/book the way he/she does. His/her way of seeing the object is the one and only right and legally valid. "I think this book/movie/drama/song is a crap" - meaning: "I think this book/movie/drama/song is a crap, and this is a dogma. Deal with it. I'm God in terms of opinion."

And here our personal experience or taste start to play some role. My example? The reason I loved Queen of Reversals lies deep in my own experiences (no, no good looking, caring guy was ready to burn the world for me. Yet.) of such toxic relationship like the marriage of the main couple. I could relate to it, I understood, and I could cheer for some people. I won't say I'm the only one in loving this drama, because I'm not.

I love Coffee Prince, but hell, who doesn't? This drama is made from awesomeness.

I may bash some 16 years-old who thinks that this-or-that drama is over-talked, because, instead of cutsy-futsy cuddling and making doltishly kawaii faces, characters are actually talking. I may correct some mistakes in interpretating some events, but this is based not on "what I think", but on profound research on this matter. Some say: "I think this drama is boring", in a sense: "I think this drama is boring and this is an absolute truth given me by the Archangel Gabriel in the epiphany of my unique sense of drama!". I refer mostly to drama, but you can substitute the very word with everything, and it still be true. (omo, does it mean I have a unique way of making sentences??)

The tastes change according to people. But is doesn't mean we are unique in our opinions. Most likely we are not. My understanding of the event may be equally valid to some others'. Let's not impose our vision of the matter on other people. If we do, it's nothing else than a personal chauvinism.

We rarely agree with our Beautiful Ladies (in some places known as antis, b*tches, haters just because we had the courage to say our mind openly and not follow other people's opinions) in a matter of actors, movies, drama, music. One of us may find some drama/movie incredibly boring while the other will be biting her nails while watching it. But the thing is, we never enforce our opinions as the ultimate truth in all of the worlds. We may disagree, and we do, but this only spices our relationships up.

This is why I'm sometimes annoyed by some posts on DA. There are people who think they swallowed the whole knowledge in this Galaxy.

The same thing goes for ignorance and for self-centrism (yes, not egocentrism, this is my way of standing out, I make up new words. I bet no one is doing this except for me, ohohoho!!). Examples? The calamity in Japan. Loads of messages were: "This is terrible. I feel so sad!". Who cares how you feel, honestly? I wouldn't give a rat's ass how the people who write messages like that feel. It's about other people's tragedy, so don't expose your feelings. Was that supposed to mean: "Oh, see? I can feel the empathy!". Bullshit. No one can sympathize with those who lost relatives, friends and everything except for those who went through the same thing.

I may be a cold b*tch, but I don't believe in an empty empathy. It's just a show-off.

The same show-off as the one used in "I think I and I only understand the artist". Not even the artist understand him/her-self as I do, yes.

Umberto Eco wrote about this even, jeez...

And what's with the kitty picture anchor? Oh, because it's my attitude as well. I like to read people whining about their incomparable taste and view of the world. That puts a smile on my face.

But if you don't agree it means you should work on yourselves. Muwahahaha...